Gas prices increase as lawmakers mull action

Gas prices increase as lawmakers mull action
By Matt Millham, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Friday, May 2, 2008

A proposal to drop federal taxes from gas sales could drop driving up costs for AAFES customers, but only if U.S. prices fall, according to an Army and Air Force Exchange Service spokesman.

Nobody — stateside or in Europe — is getting a break this week, though.

Drivers in Germany and the United Kingdom will pay about a dime more per gallon for all grades of gasoline and 3.4 cents more per gallon for diesel starting Saturday. In the Netherlands, where the exchange sells fuel at cost, prices for all grades of gas and diesel drop between 1.4 cents and 6.7 cents per gallon.

In Italy, where prices are set by the Navy’s Tax-Free office, gas and diesel prices shot up again Wednesday. Gas and diesel both sell for more than $4 per gallon there. But it’s the weak dollar, not higher stateside prices, to blame in Italy.

“This is a nonprofit program, but in the past five years, we’ve seen the purchasing power of the dollar decrease by approximately 37 percent against the euro,” said Bart Di Muccio, administrator for the Tax-Free office in Naples.


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